CQ CQ CQ

This is one of my hobbies, I have more than a few. Unfortunately, this is the one I cherish the most, and probably neglect the most. This is my effort to change all that.

I have worked as a radio tech off and on for most of my adult life. Like a lot of adult life I put off getting my license until a couple years shy of retirement. I still have not led myself into studying for, scheduling, taking and passing My general, But I try to put my tech class to good use. SDR was my gateway drug and I still play with that more than my HAM stuff.

A couple months back, my wife and I “rewired”, sold the house, moved into a motorhome, and took our act on the road full time. WE have accomplished so much together that I can not even start to document the transition. Fortunately she supports my “radio thing” keeps a good logbook, and only calls me a dork every couple weeks.

One of my goals in this new life was to spend more time with my radios. Listening, decoding, tuning in, and sometimes participating. I really really want to get my general and start playin in HF. I think it would be interesting to have a contact map featuring our various locations. (we are mobile, and we move a lot more than most full timers.) I want try to make (and record) contacts as I go. I of-course will need to accomplish a few projects to achieve my goal(s)

• Efficiently deployable multi-band antenna(ae) fed to SDR(receive)
  • HF (10M transmit@ 100 watts) (KW TS1000)
  • VHF (Ham and airband) (transmit ham, receive everything else.
  • UHF (Ham) XMIT/RCV;FMRS. GMRS, UHF repeaters, etc) (tertiary objective)
• Permanent (roadable) VHF/UHF antenna.
  • Extend 710 head unit to dash
    • (clean up all the other things “temporarily” mounted to dash
• CQ plan
  • 10 Meters
  • VHF (known repeaters)
  • VHF Simplex
• Database of known repeaters along the 4k miles route.
• Frequency/callsign Sticker on rig.

We are going to move through Canada as fast as we must, so I am not sure if I will make any contacts there. I have the repeaters for the Alcan (all the way to Dawson Creek) programmed into the 710 so I will try to ping them as we go by.

We probably won;t leave here (North Pole AK) until the 23-24th of August, and our goal is to be in northern Wisconsin by the 15th or so of September. (about 3400 miles) So we will be moving fairly quickly and probably NOT prioritizing our hobbies. ( I have NOT learned to slow down for the roses yet)

I will employ my lovely diligent wife to keep a logbook of my (our) contacts.

15 Days…

Our journey has started in Alaska!